PEALE.] THEEMAL SPEINGS OF THE UNITED STATES. 321 



north of Brigliam City, Utah, are on or near the line of faulting of the 

 west side of the Wahsatch Eange. 



When a comparison of the temperatures is made, the point that at- 

 tracts attention is the higher range of temperature in the western area. 

 In the Appalachian region the highest temperature is 108°, the majority 

 being below 100'^. In the catalogue the temperatures of eighty-five 

 localities in the west, outside of the National Park, are given, and of these 

 sixty-six are 100° or over, and of about the same number of localities of 

 which temperatures are not recorded several are mentioned as being 

 boiling springs. It will be found, also, that the hottest springs are in 

 regions of eruptive rocks. 



Only a few of the localities of actual spouting springs will be here 

 briefij'^ described, viz. Steamboat Springs and Volcano Springs, of JSTe- 

 vada, and an area in Southern California, and the geysers of California. 

 The latter is the most noted, and will be described first. 



THE GETSEES OF CALIFOENIA. 



The geysers of California are situated in a lateral valley of Napa Val- 

 ley, called Pluton or Devil's Caiion, in Sonoma County, in Eastern Cali- 

 fornia, north of San Francisco. The caiion is about half a mile in length 

 and about 30 feet wide, and covered with the deposits of extinct springs, 

 among which are numerous steam jets and hot springs, some of which 

 are clear, others turbid, some chalybeate, some sulphurous, and some 

 astringent with alum. The ravine is always filled with the steam which 

 escai)es from them. Some of the springs, such as the "Witches' Cal- 

 dron," are in constant ebullition; others are intermittent, throwing the 

 water in jets, which rise from 2 to 15 or 20 feet. The Witches' Caldron 

 is 7 feet in diameter. The steam pipe or Steamboat Geyser has an opening 

 8 inches in diameter, from which the steam ascends to a height of 50 to 

 100 feet, with a roar like the escape from a steamboat. There are about 

 a hundred springs in all, of which the following are the indncipal ones : 



Temperature °F. 



Black Sulphur Spring 150-f 



Boiling Black Sulphur Spring 97 



White Sulphur Spriug, Alum and Iron Spring 



Boiling Alum and Sulphur Spring : 150-1- 



Epsom Salts Spring , 



Witches' Caldron 195 



Medicated Geyser Bath 90-|- 



Steamboat Geyser - 



Intermittent Scalding Springs (Geyser) 175 



Devil's Inkstand, Alkali Lake, Indian Spring, Boiling Eye-water Spring, Acid 

 Spring 



The steam from some of the springs has been utilized for vapor baths 

 by the construction of sheds over the springs. In Geyser Canon, a 

 branch of Pluton Creek, the highest temperature, according to Whitney, 

 is 207° F. 



STEAMBOAT SPRINGS OF NEVADA. 



The Steamboat Springs are in Washoe Valley, east of the Virginia 

 range in Western Nevada. They are described as follows by Mr. 

 Arnold Hague:* 



They cover an area about one-quarter or one-third of a mile in length by 800 to 

 1,000 ieet in width. The surface of the giound is covered by a deep accumulation of 

 siliceous sinter, the deposit of the evaporated spring-water. Eunning lengthwise 



* In Vol. II, Descriptive Geology, Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel 

 pp. 8-25, 826. 



21 H, PT II 



